231 



SAURIN, JAMES. 



SAUSMAREZ, JAMES, LORD DE. 



253 



pierced with nine holes in three parallel rows. Small pins were placed 

 by the hand in these holes, and the value of a digit was indicated by 

 the particular hole, in each square, in which the pin was placed. A 

 pin with a large head placed in the centre hole denoted zero, and one 

 with a small head in the same hole indicated unity. A large-headed 

 phi in the centre, with a small-headed pin in the first hole of the first 

 row, expressed the number 2 ; a large-headed pin in the centre, with a 

 small-headed pin in the second hole of the first row, expressed the 

 number 3 ; and so on. The process is described in the first volume 

 of the 'Elements of Algebra,' and it is evident that by such means 

 any number may be easily expressed, and auy arithmetical operation 

 performed. He used the same machine for representing geometrical 

 diagrams : the pins being placed at the angles of the figure, and 

 connected by threads which indicated the lines. 



His ideas of the forms which plane or solid figures would assume 

 when viewed by an eye placed in a given position, were remarkably 

 correct and distinct ; and we are informed by Dr. Reid (' Inquiry into 

 the Human Mind,' ch. 6), that he understood the rules of perspective 

 and the projections of the sphere. But the mental process by which 

 he acquired this kind of information was probably peculiar to himself; 

 for Dr. Reid states that once in conversation, Saunderson acknowledged 

 that he had found great difficulty in understanding Dr. Halley's demon- 

 stration, that the angle made by two circles of the sphere was equal to 

 the angle made by their projections on a plane, adding that when he 

 considered the proposition in his own way he became aware of its 

 truth. 



Dr. Sauudersoli possessed in a high degree the senses of feeling and 

 hearing. It is said that he could distinguish true from counterfeit 

 Roman medals by the different degrees of their smoothness; and on 

 one occasion, when some students were taking the sun's altitude in the 

 garden of Christ's College, he could tell, by some effect of the air 

 upon his person, when very light clouds were passing over the disc of 

 the luminary. When he entered a room he could judge of its magni- 

 tude and of his distance from the walls by the sound of his footsteps. 

 In his youth he had learned to play on the flute, and it is said that he 

 succeeded so well as to give room to suppose that if he had applied 

 himself to music he might have excelled in it to as great a degree as 

 in mathematics. 



Saunderson is described as having been extremely passionate. He 

 was imbued with a strong sense of the importance of truth, but he 

 too often expressed his sentiments with a freedom which caused him 

 to have many enemies. It may be said that he was better qualified to 

 inspire admiration than to make or preserve friends. He is accused 

 moreover of having been decidedly a sceptic in matters concerning 

 religion. 



SAURIN, JAMES, an eminent French Protestant divine, was born 

 at Nismes, January 6, 1677. He was the son of a lawyer, of the same 

 persuasion, who quitted France upon the revocation of the Edict of 

 Nantes, and retired apparently to Geneva. At least it is known that 

 James Saurin finished his education there, after having borne arms 

 for a short time in the English service. In 1701 we find him pastor 

 of the Walloon church in London, whence, after four years, he repaired 

 to Holland, and establishing himself at the Hague, remained there in 

 the exercise of the ministry until his death, December 30, 1730. That 

 event is said to have been hastened by mortification at the disputes 

 and ecclesiastical censures in which he was involved by his ' Disser- 

 tation sur le Mensonge Officieux,' on falsehoods which are expedient, 

 a delicate subject to handle. 



As a preacher he is ranked at the head of the French Protestants. 

 " Depth of thought, force of argument, skilful connection of parts, 

 strength of drawing, bursts of pathos, original turns, points which 

 strike the imagination and move the heart, majestic and imposing 

 simplicity like that of the Scriptures, are the characteristics of his 

 eloquence." Such is the criticism of a French biographer. 



He published five volumes of sermons, to which seven volumes were 

 added after his death : the first portion is reputed the best. His other 

 chief works are, ' On the State of Christianity in France,' and ' Dis- 

 courses, historical, theological, and moral, on the principal events of 

 the Old and New Testaments,' 2 vols. fol. (known as Saurin's Bible), 

 to which four volumes by other hands were added after his death. In 

 these is contained the ' Dissertation on Falsehood' above noticed. Six 

 volumes of his sermons have been translated into English. 



SAURIN, JOSEPH, a French mathematician and natural philo- 

 sopher, was born in 1659, in the South of France, at Courtaison in the 

 principality of Orange, (now the department of Vaucluse) where his 

 father was the minister of a Protestant congregation. The young 

 man was educated in the principles of the Reformed Church, and 

 before he was twenty-four years of age he was called to the ministry 

 at Eure in Dauphin^. Possessing an ardent temperament and a bold 

 eloquence, he soon distinguished himself as a preacher; but, in one of 

 his sermons, happening to censure too freely the measures taken by 

 government for diminishing the privileges of the Protestants, he was 

 obliged to retire into the canton of Bern, where he obtained the curacy 

 of Berchier in the bailliage of Yverdun. Certain circumstances, which 

 had been differently related by his friends and enemies, obliged him 

 soon afterwards to take refuge in France, where, in 1690, he abjured 

 the doctrines of the Calvinists. His own account is, that having 

 refused to sign the ' Consensus ' of Geneva, condemning the doctrines 



of the French Protestant theologians respecting original sin and the 

 vowel points of the Hebrew text, he waa vehemently censured by a 

 party in the Church. He adds that the harsh treatment to which he 

 was subjected on this account led him to suspect the sincerity of his 

 adversaries' sentiments in religion ; and that an attentive study of the 

 works of the celebrated Bossuet convinced him of the errors of Pro- 

 testantism. On the other hand it is stated that Saurin, having been 

 guilty of theft, withdrew to France in order to avoid the prosecution 

 with which he waa threatened : this accusation, true or false, is 

 founded on a confession which he ia said to have made in a letter 

 dated 1689, and printed in the 'Mercure Suisee,' and upon tome 

 documents relating to the criminal process instituted on the occasion, 

 which are stated to have been preserved in the Chancery of Bern. 



After his recantation, having, through the interest of Bosauet 

 obtained a pension from the king (Louis XIV.), Saurin devoted him- 

 self to the study of the mathematical sciences; and between 1702 

 and 1708 he wrote several papers which were published in the ' Journal 

 dos Savans.' At the same time he was engaged in a controversy with 

 Huyghens on the subject of the vortices of Descartes, and with Rolle 

 concerning the infinitesimal calculus. He became a member of the 

 Acaddmie des Sciences in 1707, and between 1709 and 1727 he enriched 

 its ' Me"moires ' with numerous mathematical and philosophical papers, 

 among which are some containing profound investigations relating to 

 the curves of swiftest descent, and dissertations, conformably to the 

 Cartesian hypothesis, on the force of gravity. 



Sauriu's scientific pursuits were interrupted for a time by the im- 

 prisonment which he suffered in consequence of an accusation brought 

 against him by J. Baptiste Rousseau, that he was the author of certain 

 profane and defamatory verses, with the composition of which Rous- 

 seau himself had been charged. As the accusation could not be substan- 

 tiated, the judgment of the court was given against the accuser, who, 

 in consequence, was banished from France, while the accused waa 

 liberated. [UoussEAU, J. B.] 



Saurin died December 29, 1737, of a lethargic fever. He appears to 

 have been a man of vigorous mind, but it ia said that he was capable 

 of using any means for obtaining the ends which he had in view ; and 

 it must be observed, that the cause of his departure from Switzerland, 

 and the abjuration of his first religious opinions, have never been satis- 

 factorily explained. 



SAURIN, ELIAS, brother of Joseph, was a divine of some note among 

 French Protestants ; he was no relation apparently to James Saurin, 

 but like him he settled in Holland : he was born in 1639, and died 

 in 1703. 



SAUSMAREZ, JAMES, LORD DE, was born at St. Peter Port, 

 in the island of Guernsey, on the llth of March 1757. His family 

 name, De Sausrnarez, bears evidence of Norman extraction, and 

 mention of it is to be found in the earliest records of the Channel 

 Islands. From early youth he manifested a strong inclination for the 

 naval service, in which several members of his family had distinguished 

 themselves. When thirteen years of age he entered as a midshipman 

 on board the Montreal, and afterwards served in the Winchelsea and 

 Levant frigates, under the respective commands of Admirals Goodall 

 and Thompson. On his return to England in 1775, he joined the 

 Bristol, of 50 guns, under the command of Sir Peter Parker, and was 

 present at the attack on Charlestown, in America : the courage he dis- 

 played on that occasion was rewarded by promotion to the rank of 

 lieutenant. From that period to 1779 he was actively employed in 

 America, and was enabled to render considerable service to the expe- 

 dition under Lord Cornwallis. He was afterwards appointed second- 

 lieutenant to the Fortitude, Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, and he was in 

 the engagement which took place with the Dutch fleet under Admiral 

 Zoutman, off the Dogger Bank, on the 5th of August 1781. His 

 behaviour in this action, in which he was wounded, caused him to be 

 promoted to the rank of commander, and appointed to the Tisiphone 

 fire-ship. 



In the month of December following Captain Sausmarez was 

 ordered to place himself under the command of Admiral Kempen- 

 feldt, who, with twelve sail of the line, was commissioned to intercept 

 the French fleet, commanded by the Comte de Guichen, and which 

 was destined to assist the Comte de Grasse in the capture of Jamaica. 

 To inform Sir Samuel Hood, the English Admiral in the West Indies, 

 of the sailing of this fleet, became a matter of the highest importance, 

 and Captain Sausmarez was selected for this service. While at 

 Jamaica he was enabled, through an exchange, to obtain post-rank and 

 the command of the Russell, a ship of the line. In this ship he 

 greatly distinguished himself at the memorable battle of the 12th of 

 April 1782. [HOOD, SAMUEL, VISCOUNT; RODNEY, ADMIRAL.] On 

 the 29th of July following, he returned in the Russell to England, 

 and from thence to his native island, where he enjoyed in the society 

 of his friends the peace which was soon after proclaimed. On the 

 breaking out of the war of the French revolution (January 1793), 

 Captain Sausmarez was appointed to the command of the Crescent, of 

 36 guns. In this frigate he captured off Cherbourg, after a warm 

 action of nearly two hours and a half, the French frigate La Reunion, 

 of 36 guns, but of larger size and with a much more numerous crew. 

 Though the French had 120 men killed and wounded, the Crescent 

 had only one man wounded, and that by the recoil of a gun. The 

 success of this action procured for Mm the honour of knighthood, and 



